A standard electrical outlet has open slots that expose children to potentially lethal electrical shock hazards. A curious child is prone to insert a conductive object into one of the slots. A child can be shocked if they are in simultaneous contact with a “hot” conductor and a low impedance path to ground. To avoid this risk, parents of young children frequently insert nonconductive plugs into all unused outlets to block out other objects. These plugs, however, significantly reduce outlet convenience. Standard AC plugs also create a shock hazard due to their tendency to pull partially out of an outlet, leaving exposed prongs that remain connected to electrical power. A child can easily touch these with their small fingers or a conductive object. Further, in research, industrial or military environments, an explosion hazard exists when electrical outlets are used in the vicinity of volatile chemicals and gases, which can be ignited with an inadvertent spark at an exposed contact.